JOHN HILDESHEIM’S NOTES 1845-1864: EDUCATION AND EARLY YEARS I was born on April 9, 1845, in Hamburg. I went to the school of Johann Roeloff and left it under his successor, Dr. Friedrich Dörr, on March 1, 1859. The same day, I was accepted as an apprentice at N.H. Bernhard & Co., Hamburg. On January 1, 1862, I became a clerk with a salary of 500 pennies courant. The Hamburg Courant. The mark courant was the currency I traveled to England on a pleasure trip, sailing on June 3, of Hamburg and other northern cities in 1862, and was equal to 1862, through Hartlepool to Manchester, Nottingham, and 16 schillings. The schilling was London, for the Great Exhibition in Sydenham. Then I worth twelve pennies. traveled back, through Nottingham--I visited Matlock--and through Hull, to Hamburg on July 1, 1862. On September 4, 1862, I left Hamburg again and joined Dagron & Cie., Paris, as a clerk, earning 150 francs per month. For this house, I went on October 21, 1863, to Gex, near Geneva, where I remained until December 31 the same year. From January 1 to May 15, 1864, I stayed in Paris with a salary of 3000 francs, then traveled through Cologne to Solingen, and, three days later, to Hamburg for the wedding of my sister Caroline. The Great Exhibition of 1862. The hall designed for the Exhibition by Captain Francis Fowke (1823-1865) of the Royal Engineers was called a “wretched shed” and was torn down after the event. 1 Rene Dagron. Shortly afterward visiting the Great Exhibition, John found work with the French photographer René Dagron (1819-1900), who had exhibited there. John worked for Dagron from September 1862 until May 1864. Dagron is remembered today for inventing microfilm, for the microfilm viewers he produced in his factory at Gex, Switzerland, and for using carrier pigeons to smuggle microfilmed letters and news to the citizens of Paris while the city was under siege by Germans in 1870-1871. This portrait of a girl--probably Johnʼs niece Louise Marie “Blanche” Hildesheim--made in Dagronʼs Paris studio, was among Johnʼs possessions. 1864-1865: CUBA AND MEXICO On June 2, 1864, I left Hamburg and traveled via the port of Grimsby to Birmingham, and there, on the 5th, joined the firm of Herr Leopold Cohen with a salary of £120. I traveled with Adolph Cohen in August to Manchester and Liverpool. In the fall, Cohen’s house sent me on a trip to Cuba. Before departing, I visited Nottingham, and received a visit from my brothers Julius and Eduard. Gustav Tuch. In 1864, John attended the wedding of his sister Caroline Hildesheim (d. 1877) and banker, author and journalist Gustav Tuch (1834-1909). He was political- economic editor of the daily newspaper Hamburger Nachrichten. In 1871, Tuch became director of the Anglo- Deutsche Bank. In 1886, his book The Extended Military State in Its Social Significance advocated a militarized socialist welfare state. In 1899, Tuch was decorated by Kaiser Wilhelm I for advocating that Hamburg should join the German Customs Union, which occurred in 1888. He was active in the Hamburg Jewish community, serving 12 times as chair of the Hamburg Bʼnai Bʼrith. He campaigned against prostitution of Jewish women in Poland and participated in organizations to support eastern European emigrants. In response to rising antisemitism, he formed Jewish community organizations and urged German Jews to participate in farming to integrate them into the German agricultural economy. This photo, and others in the Tuch family album, were captioned in red by Gustav and Carolineʼs son Theodor in 1942, as the Nazi government was preparing to deport him and his wife Clara to Theresienstadt, and ultimately, to death at Treblinka. 2 Veracruz, Mexico, 1869. John visited the city in 1865 on a business trip to Cuba and Mexico undertaken for the brothers and business partners Leopold Louis Cohen and Adolph Cohen of Birmingham. Leopold was an export merchant and Adolph a jeweler. Their niece, Pauline Jeanette Meyer, would become Johnʼs wife. Paulineʼs grandmother, Jette “Jessie” Warburg Cohen, resided with her son Adolph in Birmingham. On November 2, 1864, I traveled from Southampton aboard the Seine to St. Thomas, where I arrived on November 24, and from there on the Royal Mail Ship Trent to Havana. The entire cost was £150, everything free. On January 9, 1865, I met with my brother Hermann in Havana. He stayed one week, then returned to Europe via Nassau and the U.S. From February 1-12, 1865, I visited the following cities of the island Cuba: Matanzas, where I saw the Caves of Bellamar, then Bembu, Cardenas, Sagua, Villaclara, Cienfuegos, and Trinidad, and returned through Batabanó to Havana. I left Havana on February 24 on the Eyder, and on the 28th, arrived at Veracruz, Mexico, where I stayed until March 23. Then I traveled by diligence through Paso del Macho, Cordoba, Orizaba, and Puebla to Mexico’s capital city, which I reached A diligence stagecoach traveled six or seven on March 27. miles per hour. 3 On May 17, 1865, I left Mexico and returned to Lipman & Company. John made his Havana on the Walcott via Veracruz and Sisal. I second trip to the Americas from stayed there for 3 days, then took the Barcelona to 1865-1868 as an employee of Lipman & New York. I remained in New York from June 4-10. Co. Dundee. John and his brothers David and Then I sailed on the Baltimore for England, and Hermann were at various times partners arrived in Birmingham on June 23, via Queenstown of Lipman & Co., which exported burlap cloth made from Indian jute fiber and Liverpool. I visited Nottingham on June 25. On internationally, with offices in Dundee, the 27th, I traveled to Hamburg, and on July 18, Glasgow, Belfast, Manchester, returned via Grimsby and Manchester to Hamburg, and New York. Birmingham, where I visited my brother Hermann The owner was their uncle Isaac Lipman (1806-1884), the brother of their mother, on August 6, 1865. Therese Lipmann Hildesheim (1803-1885). (Isaac Lipman adopted a On August 12, I left Birmingham for Paris, where I shorter spelling of the Lipmann family went together with Papa [Siegmund Hildesheim name.) He was also a principal in (1804-1895), a Hamburg merchant] and Julius. I left Lipman & Wulff Hamburg. A pioneer in the Dundee jute industry, he was a Paris on August 25 and met that evening with [my partner in the Lipman & Hamel trading uncle Isaac] Lipman and his family as well as company there as early as 1845. Hermann in London. On the 26th, I was in David was in partnership with Lipman Sydenham, on the 27th, in Richmond and Hampton and Malta Wulff in the firm Lipman & Co. Dundee. He withdrew from the Court. On the 28th, I went to Nottingham. partnership in 1882. Back in Birmingham on August 31, I chose from four After Johnʼs period of employment with the Dundee firm, he was taken in as a offers Lipman & Co. Dundee had made me. I chose partner and in 1869 established Lipman the one that was most profitable for me: £250, & Co. Glasgow. In 1880 he became sole everything free, ¼ share. owner of the business under his own name. On September 2, I met my brother David and his In late 1885, Hermann became a family in Blairgowrie. I went on the 11th to Belfast, partner in Lipman & Co. Dundee. In 1892, Lipman & Co., then owned by and returned to Dundee through Glasgow on the Hermann, Isaac Lipmanʼs son Ernst 18th. On October 14, I went to Hamburg via Lipman, and Edward Friedländer, failed, Edinburgh and Leith, and returned to Dundee on and bankruptcy litigation ensued. October 29, 1865. 1865-1868: SOUTH AMERICA, CENTRAL AMERICA, CALIFORNIA, THE CARIBBEAN Brazil On November 6, 1865, I went to London, then from there to Southampton on the 8th. On the 9th, I left Southampton on the steamer Douro. By November 12, we were in Tajo near Lisbon, passed Tenerife on the 16th, and on the 20th, St. Vincent. On the 27th, we arrived at Pernambuco, Brazil, where I stayed until December 15. 4 The Panana brought me on the 20th to Maranhão, after touching on the Parahiba harbor, Rio Grande do Norte, and Céara. I spent Christmas, 1865, on the quinta [ranch] “San Lazaro“ in Maranhão. On December 31 and New Year's Day, I was in Remedio. On January 12, 1866, I left Maranhão and arrived in Pará. On the 24th I left Pará; toured Maranhão, Natal, Parahiba, Céara, Pernambuco, Abaceio; and was in Bahia on the Tocantino on February 7. On February 20th, I went on the Kepler to Rio, where I arrived on February 24. On March 7, I left Rio on the Brasil. On March 10, I was on Santa Catarina Island. On the 13th, I arrived in Rio Grande do Sol, then, on the 27th, left that place on the Gerente. Uruguay, Argentina, Chile From March 28 to April 4, 1866, I was in Montevideo. I left on the Rio Paraná and arrived in Buenos Aires on the 5th. On the 17th I took the Icihu to Rosario, where I spent April 18- 24. Between April 24 and May 3, I spent one day in each of the following places: Arequito [Argentina] Tres Cruces [Montevideo, Uruguay] Tortural--there was dancing Rio Cuarto [Cordoba, Argentina] Achiras [Cordoba, Argentina] Rio Quinto [Cordoba, Argentina] Desaguadero [Mendoza, Argentina] San Luis [Argentina] Santa Rosa [Mendoza, Argentina] Mendoza [Argentina] On May 4, 1866, I started from Mendoza for Valparaiso, where I arrived on the 13th, traveling through the Chilean towns of Coquimbito los Andes and Llay-llay.